I have 2 final assignments due in 12 days, one is worth 40% of my grade and the other is worth 30% and I’ve barely started either of them. My ideas and thoughts are percolating shall we say. I under estimated how hard it would be to do assignments over the school holidays with 4 kids and my husband at home. Doing the weekly tasks has been fine, and when I was working before my holidays began, I was really productive because I stayed at work for 2 hours with no interruptions, hidden away in my boss’s office while he was on leave. I got more done in those couple of hours than the rest of the week. And now I’m on leave and my brain has switched off.
Right now, I should be writing a 1500 word reflective essay on an assignment I haven’t got back yet, about my growth in my communication online unit and instead I’m here, typing this. For the past few days I’ve been finding myself doing any number of things expect studying. Some are legitimate reasons such as helping my children, caring for our sick chicken and finishing a job application, but by and large they are excuses because I’m at a loss where to start each assignment properly. I read and reread the weekly modules, I look over the discussion board and watch the recorded lectures but right now my brain isn’t taking any of it in. And it’s not lack of sleep for once!
For the most part I believe I’m in a mode of ‘no one else in my family is working so why should I?’. As I type the children have had a sleepover at Grandma’s with their cousins playing games and eating copious amounts of sugar, and my husband is playing computer games with his mate. I, on the other hand, have been constantly trying to write and keep my brain focused for long periods of time on some complicated concepts. My down time is interrupted by babies and questions which allows no reset. I think my brain is running out of battery.
A mothers mind is never really at rest, the number of things she tried to retain in her memory at any given moment is outside of what scientists tell us we can retain. A normal working memory can hold 3-7 items at once, those are things we are actively working with but in reality, to be productive that number is closer to 1-3. So, making dinner, while answering someone’s questions are about all that one should be doing. I don’t know about you but I swear when I’m making dinner is the time everyone demands my attention, which here is 5 people so right off the bat I’m making dinner, being bombarded with 5 different information overload sessions and trying to get someone to clear then set the table, probably change the baby’s nappy, wash a few dishes and if I’m feeling on top of it, think ahead to prep tomorrows dinner. Now that’s 10 or so things all at once which is way above the norm.
My brain is doing that and being really helpful trying to think of uni assignments and job applications at the same time. I’ve had weird dreams about assignments so it’s not even stopping when I’m asleep. I know that I will eventually get my assignments done and uni will be on break in a few weeks when the kids go back to school so proper down time is coming but in the mean time I need a brain reset button if anyone has a spare laying around, please let me know!